From the ski resort of l'alpe du Grand Serre (la Bache) follow a trail to les Desserts behind the Grizzli buildings.

From the Desert drag lift follow a track (vallons piste) through the Pres de Clos to pt 1448m then climb up the Grande Montage slopes to the ridge. You can check out the couloirs from here.

Every mountain range has its resort X. A solitary lift on some deserted mountain col that leads to some hidden backcountry stash. Or so the teasers would have us believe.

Skate up to the Grand Rocher via the Refuge and Cret Luisard pistes. Still lacking some snow at the bottom when I arrived, the bare patches were covered by a few cms of fresh at 5pm.

There's not much snow, about 10cm on the road (as opposed to 45cm measured Meteo France on the field next door. So it doesn't bode well for an end of season.

The comma couloir has not been good this year. Last time in January the snow was hard and scralped in the couloir and soggy in the woods, but there was a good base and the pistes were ok.

Very warm this afternoon but didn't have the motivation to go out this morning. Surprised that the first 100 meters still doesn't have sufficient snow cover to ski.

It has snowed overnight and reports from this morning were quite encouraging. Less snow than forecast but around 25cm of dense powder. I decided to have a look at the col du Coq routes.

We couldn't decide on a ski trip today so late in the afternoon I decided to take my skating skis up the road from the col de Porte to the Bergeries just under the Charmant Som mountain.

Mike was keen to explore the Beaufortain, the snowiest mountain range in France at the moment with some 3 meters since the 1st Jan at 1800 m.